Update to this post: The UNC Board of Governors voted Friday to ban legal work of the UNC Center for Civil Rights. The Raleigh News & Observer reports the Center will shut down at UNC, but continue its work elsewhere.

As the UNC Board of Governors meets today to consider banning the UNC Center for Civil Rights from litigating future cases, a lot of people will be looking at how well the board members interact with one another after a heated session Thursday.

Reporter Jane Stancill with the News & Observer described the leadership team’s meeting this way:

In a stunning and contentious session, a faction of the UNC Board of Governors took steps Thursday for substantive changes in the university system, including lowering tuition and fees at the campuses, reorganizing the staff of UNC President Margaret Spellings and moving the UNC system headquarters out of Chapel Hill.

The proposals came rapid fire in a flurry of resolutions and caught some members off guard. Some said they hadn’t heard anything about the proposals before they walked in the room.

The meeting followed a scathing letter to Spellings and Board Chair Lou Bissette that was reported by The News & Observer on Thursday. The letter, signed by 15 members, took Spellings and Bissette to task for a lack of communication to the members before they sent a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper about security and future plans for Silent Sam, the Confederate statue on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill. Some members of the board didn’t sign the letter and said they had never seen it.

The two-hour discussion revealed a chasm among members on the overwhelmingly Republican board. Some said the proposals came out of left field and could undermine unity and Spellings’ authority as president.